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Warface hits the trenches today in final closed beta
Crytek's perpetual in-beta freemium shooter Warface has initiated another closed beta run today, open to all who're registered through Crytek's Gface service. This will be the final round of beta testing before the game launches in North America, Europe and Turkey later this year. Warface, a free-to-play online shooter with multiple classes spanning both competitive and co-operative game modes, is a joint effort between Crytek and Trion Worlds. Warface, in combination with Gface, marks Crytek's first steps toward becoming a fully free-to-play company, which it hopes will happen within the next five years.
Yerli: Crytek plans to be fully free-to-play within 5 years
Crytek's plan to transition to free-to-play games includes expanding the studio's role as a service provider, building upon the GFace gaming platform, CEO Cevat Yerli tells Venture Beat. Crytek should be fully free-to-play within five years, he says."We decided five or six years ago that we want to marry the quality of triple-A games with the business model of free-to-play," Yerli says. "And at that time, we decided some other games, in some of our other studios, would head in this direction. But we kept pushing the quality bar higher on our console business, which is the main dominating business for the Western world, but we are observing, plainly - and we see this already with Warface - that the free-to-play market is on the rise. I think over the next two to three years, free-to-play is going to rival retail with quality games like Warface."Crytek as a business will "transition from a developer to a service company" and will offer GFace to any developer that needs it, Yerli says."If we could launch our games on a platform that already exists today, and we could get the same results, then we wouldn't build our own platform," he says. "But we're convinced that our platform does some particularly new things that makes our games behave better. That's why we plan to offer this service to third parties."In 2012, Yerli laid down plans to transition to free-to-play, though he didn't provide a timeline or any service goals at the time. Still, GFace won't become the new focus at Crytek, Yerli says:"This doesn't mean our main business will be driven by our platform business. We are just going to open it up and see how it works. We are always going to be a games-first company. We will always have our own development because we are all about making games. We provide technology, but technology is not our main driver. We make technology to make great games."
Crytek opens Istanbul (not Constantinople) studio
Crytek recently announced the opening of its eighth studio, Crytek Istanbul. The Turkish studio will support Crytek's free-to-play ambitions as well as the Warface and Gface brands.While Crytek's primary headquarters are located in Germany, its three founders are Turkish brothers: Avni, Faruk and Cevat Yerli, the latter being the developer's CEO. Cevat Yerli recently stressed that Crysis 3 will not make its way to Wii U.
Warface takes a shot at the west, from Crytek and Trion Worlds
Warface, Crytek's free-to-play social FPS currently live in Russia, has a deal to launch in western markets, published by Trion Worlds. Warface will hit North America, Europe, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand through Gface, Crytek's social gaming network, and the Trion Platform.Warface has two million registered users in Russia. This marks Crytek's grand entrance into the freemium era, after CEO Cevat Yerli announced in June that all future projects from Crytek will be F2P. The budget for Warface and each of Crytek's other F2P titles is "between $10 million to $30 million... but at the price-point of $0 entry," Yerli said.
Crytek CEO: TimeSplitters could return as free-to-play title
Crytek won't be making a traditional retail TimeSplitters title, according to Cevat Yerli, the company's CEO (not a huge surprise, really). In an interview with VideoGamer, Yerli said he wished the company could develop it, saying, "I love the idea, I love the brand, I love everything – but the publishers don't." He added that he doesn't "want to spend [Crytek's] money on the project in a retail business."It sounds dour to be sure, but Yerli quickly turned the tables, saying that TimeSplitters could be resurrected as a free-to-play title. Crytek recently made some waves announcing that it would be moving entirely toward a free-to-play business model after the launch of Crysis 3. The transition will be supported entirely by GFACE, Crytek's own game-streaming service.Regarding the possibility of a new TimeSplitters on GFACE, Yerli was pretty clear: "I love the picture of a Timesplitters running on GFACE."When a TimeSplitters sequel was referred to as gaming's Bigfoot – its Yeti, if you will – Yerli noted that "if we get enough fans, being loud enough," then "the Yeti can come back, on GFACE."
Post-Crysis 3, Crytek goes free-to-play
Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli revealed that all future projects from the company will be free-to-play, according to an interview with VideoGamer.com. Yerli noted that "the future is online and free-to-play," and that the company is in a transitional phase, focusing future games and platforms around those models after completing current contracts for games in development.Crytek's first game to venture into the free-to-play market is Warface, first introduced to Asian regions in late 2010 and coming to North America in 2012. Yerli cited Warface as an example of future titles from the company, which "implies budgets of between $10 million to $30 million... but at the price-point of $0 entry."Yerli explained that the free-to-play business model is the most user-friendly, as opposed to premium content structures. "If you look at what kind of games are done in the packaged goods market, with DLCs and premium services and whatnot, it's literally milking the customers to death," he said.Crytek's free-to-play games will be supported by its game streaming network Gface, which went into beta in February.
Crytek goes casual with 'Fibble' for iOS
Crytek isn't the first name we'd think of for cute, casual iPhone games, but the company is continuing the expansion that it started with its Gface social network -- an expansion into things other than video card-melting shooters.Fibble, out today for iPhone and iPad, is a physics-based puzzle game about a bulbous, Weeble-esque alien that you move through tracks on oversized everyday environments by "flicking" -- dragging away from him and letting go.Of course, it's still a Crytek game, so that means high-end 3D graphics even for a cutesy game about rolling a blob around the kitchen table. See for yourself in the trailer above.
Crytek's Gface hits beta, wants you to stream your games, life
Facebook games just not doing it for you anymore? Than put on your gameface -- or log into it, rather. Gface is an upcoming social network, powered by Crytek, that seems to be gunning for OnLive (or maybe Gaikai)'s cloud gaming foothold. Yes, streaming's the name of the game here -- Gface is powered by Crytek's new Seed Engine, a cloud technology platform that lets users share context aware game sessions, video seeds and personal media. Details are hazy at the moment, but if the network's new beta subscription page is anything to go by, Gface will allow friends to socialize, share live video feeds and stream casual and high-performance games in both single player and cross-platform multiplayer modes. This real-time sharing setup is designed to be a hardware independent, cross-platform network that runs in your browser, powered by the GFace experience plug-in; imagery on the teaser page suggests you'll be able to seamlessly pick up a game of "Warface" on your PC, smartphone or tablet. There are plenty of questions left to ponder about the budding social network, but one picks our brain: will it run Crytek's Crysis? Hit the source link below to sign up for the beta, and if you get in -- let us know.
Gface, Crytek-backed streaming game network, goes into beta
No longer content with making incredibly technologically advanced games, Crytek is going after the casual space with a browser-based, social gaming platform called Gface (so that's what that trademark was for!), developed and maintained by an affiliate, also called Gface.Gface is sort of like a game-focused Facebook: a cross-platform social network designed to facilitate playing casual or hardcore, 2D or 3D games with people, and finding more people to play with. Games are delivered through a plugin based on the "Seed Engine," enabling installation-free, streaming gameplay.If you're interested in checking out Gface, the company is hosting signups for a closed beta. Maybe if you get in, you can find out what the games are!
Rumor: Crytek Hiring for MMO Project
We here at Massively like to keep our ear to the ground when it comes to potential new MMOs, and one of the indications that a company is moving in that direction comes from job wanted ads, believe it or not. Crytek, the makers of Far Cry and the Crysis series, recently put up a job posting for a Senior IT Manager that suggests they are looking into online gaming. ShackNews reported on this ad, noting that the company is looking for someone who would help in "designing, testing, and implementing as part of the development team, the systems infrastructure for an MMO online game." Ding ding ding, them are the magic words, so start the speculation. Of course, this may just be Crytek testing the waters and not a serious commitment on their behalf, especially considering that the mention of an MMO in this ad is only a small part of the responsibilities mentioned. ShackNews also noted that Crytek filed for three trademarks over a year ago: Gface, Carvatar, and Kingdoms. Whether or not these have anything to do with a possible MMO project is anyone's guess, but it is a tantalizing possibility. We'll be sure to keep a close eye on Crytek to see if they make any more moves toward an online title. One thing is for sure: if they did create a MMO, you can bet the letters "cry" will be part of the title.
Crytek registers 3 new trademarks, none start with 'Cry'
German developer Crytek recently filed three new trademark applications and, in a move that shook Joystiq at its very foundation, none of the names trademarked start with the word "cry." "Carvatar," "Kingdoms" and "Gface" have all been filed for by the developer -- names for games already in development for next gen, perhaps? We reached out to Jens Schäfer, PR manager for Crytek, who told us, "I'm sorry but we usually don't comment on trademark applications." The law of wild speculation dictates in situations like these that we must make up the silliest possible explanation and as such, we offer you this: Hyper-realistic, car-based avatars with face recognition software tied to Gmail accounts to be used in Crytek's upcoming MMO, Kingdoms. That's the obvious answer.Trademark 1 - CarvatarTrademark 2 - KingdomsTrademark 3 - Gface
